Space Shuttle Endeavour in LA pics

[Monsieur Remings]

The shuttle was such an incredible machine IMO. I sometimes wonder how it ever got off the drawing board. Can you imagine some engineer trying to describe it during concept.

'Oh and by the way we'll cover it completely in er um ... bricks and it'll glide in with no engines and land a 375mph.
Also, If we're really careful we can use two great big tubes stuffed to the brim with gunpowder to get it off the ground.
Oh and at the point of takeoff we'll have to pump like half a million gallons of water on to the launch pad to stop the sound of the engines ripping the concrete apart.

What a machine.

Quite a dangerous machine too overloaded with 'unnecessary' military/surveillance crap. The older rockets were much safer to land IMO.

 

[Arch]

Thanks Smokey.... that was lovely!

+1!

 

[colly]

Quite a dangerous machine too overloaded with 'unnecessary' military/surveillance crap. The older rockets were much safer to land IMO.

But older rockets didn't land. The whole point of the shuttle was that it COULD land and be re-used ?

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

But older rockets didn't land.

Especially not if you were this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Komarov

 

[Pauluk]

The older rockets were much safer to land IMO.

I don't ever remember a shuttle crashing onto or into a runway. Of course one blew up on take off and one disintegrated on reentry but actual landings were never short of perfect as far as I can remember.

 

[Monsieur Remings]

But older rockets didn't land. The whole point of the shuttle was that it COULD land and be re-used ?

Yep, agreed I didn't put it very well did I. What I meant was the capsules that were jettisoned back to Earth were generally a safer option than returning the shuttle through the atmosphere and what I am saying is that there were ulterior reasons for keeping what was essentially a very unsafe vehicle (both leaving the Earth given the mass of solid rocket fuel and re-entering given the tendency to overheat), namely, spy/military equipment kept in an oversize payload.

Is it not ironic that with all the technology that NASA had, they had no way of keeping astronauts on board any shuttle safe when the shoot really hit the fan?